When not working on my own art I spend a great deal of time out and about looking at other work.

Saturday, January 30, 2016

Back in Berkeley

The Berkeley Art Museum is
back.I got a peak at the members’
preview today.I have always been a fan
and even had a fondness for the old, brutalist edifice on Bancroft.Years of education in 70s modernist buildings
can do that to you.The new museum is a
totally different experience.The new
building is simply flawless.The firm of
Diller Scofidio & Renfro did the sort of
innovative, quality work that frankly is rare in the Bay Area.You can immediately see that the space will
be flexible for showing a wide range of art.The building has been designed first and foremost to show art.It
feels spacious and the galleries flow well with at least two entrances for each
room.Even on a crowded day, the museum
still felt comfortable. There are architects who design museums then there are architects who are museum-goers and design museums. You can tell.

“…explores the ways that architecture—as concept, metaphor,
and practice—illuminates various aspects of life experience: the nature of the
self and psyche, the fundamental structures of reality, and the power of the
imagination to reshape our world.”

The current show officially opens tomorrow and runs until
May 29, 2016. I am excited to have the Berkeley Art Museum back as part of my local museum
rotation.

About Me

I am an artist living in San Francisco. I work primarily in mixed media, collage and landscape painting. My work has included maps, postcard-themed art and mail art projects. In 2013 I began a series called Collagescapes where I start painting paper with areas of color representing the palette of a specific place. Next I cut the paper into hundreds of small pieces, randomize the pieces and then reassemble them in various geometric patterns. Collagescapes are both landscape paintings and collages. They appear abstract but retain the color palette of the places they represent.
My new series is Time Travel Photos — handmade photo collages showing places in San Francisco where I have cut and sliced present-day photographs and interwoven photos of nature representing how the City looked before Europeans arrived. Each is an image of an urban space with the natural past emerging through. For example, creeks once again run through the Mission and dunes reappear in Golden Gate Park and tidal flats fill the Embarcadero.
My work has shown in over 40 venues, primarily in California but also in other locations in the United States and abroad. My artwork can be viewed at tofuart.com